Jim Chick

It is with great sadness that I have to report the sudden and untimely death of Jim Chick in early August. Jim was the first Director of the club as the role morphed from Hon. Secretary to the more formal business title. The Falconer records him in post from 1982-88. On standing down, he became a long-serving chairman of the Hawk Board, and it was here that he achieved so much for falconry and hawk keeping. He liaised tirelessly with the various bureaucrats at Animal Health and wider government departments, building relationships that secured our position purely through his extraordinary strength of personality. We have much to thank him for.

As a falconer he was particularly known for flying on the MoD land that is one of our legendary venues: Salisbury Plain. He also worked for the Hawk Conservancy at Andover with Reg and Ashley Smith and bred countless hawks for members and friends. He was a great display giver but never pretended that this was falconry proper. In the early days he was a pioneer of telemetry having been a radio ham and BT engineer.

A full obituary will appear in next year’s journal.

Those who knew him well will mourn his passing and on behalf of the club and his many, many friends we extend our condolences to his wife Liz and daughter Angie.